ISLAMABAD, March 8: The journalists of the twin cities will go to polls on Saturday to elect the office-bearers of the Rawalpindi-Islamabad Union of Journalists (RIUJ).

The RIUJ members will cast their votes at two polling booths set up at Rawalpindi Press Club at Liaquat Bagh and in front of Dawn offices at Zero Point in Islamabad. The polling will start at 9am and continue till 8pm.

The contest for the post of general-secretary will be held between Sardar Ashique Hussain (KPI) and Moazzam Raza Tabassum (Kainat) after withdrawal of papers by Bilal Thaheem (APP) and Najmus Saqib (Asaas).

For the slot of joint secretary, the contest is among Aamir Mehboob (Ausaf), Najmus Saquib (Asaas) and Tahir Jamal (Al- Akhbar).

For the 10 executive council seats the contest will be held among Faraz Hashmi (Dawn); Aalia Mirza (Kainat); Ilyas Choudhry (Jang); Ahmad Bilal (Pakistan); Rao Khalid Mahmood (APP); Suhail Yaqoob (Pakistan); Suhail Shahzad (Kainat); Ishaque Chaudhry (Dawn); Raja Kafeel Ahmed (ANN); Imtiaz Butt (Khabrain); Ilyas Bhatti (APP) and Tahir Rathore (The Frontier Post).

Pervez Shoukat has already been elected RIUJ president unopposed for the fourth consecutive time after three candidates - Faraz Hashmi (Dawn), Khalid Mahmood (APP) and Sajjad Tareen (Khabrain) withdrew their nomination papers.

The other RIUJ office-bearers, who have been elected unopposed, are vice-presidents Farhat Turabi (Asaas) and Mahboobur Rahman Tanoli (Ausaf), and Ijaz Malik (The News) as treasurer.

Meanwhile, 35 biennial delegates to the Federal Executive Committee of the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists have also been elected unopposed.